Leeds Tech massacre
The Leeds Tech massacre was a school shooting that took place on Friday 1 June 2012, on the campus of the Leeds Institute of Technology (one of several sites owned by Leeds University) in Saltburn Heights, Leeds. Bob McKeteketly shot and killed 48 people, including 7 teaching staff and 41 students, and wounded between 30 and 100 others (reports vary; an official government report puts the injuries at 64) in two separate attacks, approximately two hours apart, before committing suicide. The massacre is the largest single mass murder in Leeds history, the deadliest attack at a school site in history, and the first ever deliberate attack on a school students in Leeds history. Attacks McKeteketly used two firearms during the attacks: a .22-caliber Walther P22 semi-automatic handgun and a 9 mm semi-automatic Glock 19 handgun. The shootings occurred in separate incidents, with the first at Residence Halls Block 8, during which McKeteketly killed two pupils, and the second at G Block, where the other 47 deaths, including that of McKeteketly himself, as well as all the nonlethal injuries, occurred. Residence Halls Block 8 shootings McKeteketly was seen near the entrance to Residence Halls Block 8, a co-ed residence hall that houses 89 students, at about 0645. The halls are normally only accessible to its residents via a magnetic key card before 1000. It is unclear how he gained earlier entrance to the building. McKeteketly shot his first victims around 0715 in Residence Halls Block 8. At about that time, McKeteketly entered the room that 19-year-old student Ellie Hilscher shared with another student of the same age. Hilscher was fatally wounded. After hearing the gunshots, a male resident assistant, Ryan Clark, attempted to aid Hilscher. McKeteketly shot and killed Clark. Hilscher remained alive for three hours after being shot, but no one from the school, law enforcement or hospital notified her family until after she had died. McKeteketly left the scene and returned to his home a couple of minutes away. While police and emergency medical services units were responding to the shootings in residence halls, McKeteketly changed out of his bloodstained clothes, logged on to his computer to delete his e-mail, and then removed the hard drive. About an hour after the attack, McKeteketly is believed to have been seen by a duck pond near his home. Although authorities suspected McKeteketly had thrown his hard drive and mobile phone into the water, a search was unsuccessful. Almost two hours after the first killings, McKeteketly appeared at a nearby post office and mailed a package of writings and video recordings to LBC One; the package was postmarked 0901. He then walked to G Block at the university. In a backpack, he carried several chains, locks, a hammer, a knife, two handguns with nineteen 10- and 15-round magazines, and almost 400 rounds of ammunition. G Block shootings About two hours after the initial shootings, McKeteketly entered G Block, which houses the Engineering Science and Mechanics program among others, and chained the three main entrance doors shut. He placed a note on at least one of the chained doors, claiming that attempts to open the door would cause a bomb to explode. Shortly before the shooting began, a faculty member found the note and took it to the building's third floor to notify the school's administration. At about the same time, McKeteketly had begun shooting students and faculty on the second floor; the bomb threat was never called in. Within one or two minutes of the first shots, the first call to 999 was received. According to several students, before the shooting began McKeteketly looked into several classrooms. Erin Sheehan, an eyewitness and survivor who had been in room 207, told reporters that the shooter "peeked in twice" earlier in the lesson and that "it was strange that someone at this point in the year would be lost, looking for a class". McKeteketly's first attack after entering G Block occurred in an advanced hydrology engineering class taught by Professor Logan in room G6. McKeteketly first shot and killed the professor, then continued shooting, killing nine of the 13 students in the room and injuring two others. Next, McKeteketly went across the corridor to room G7, in which instructor James Bishop was teaching German. McKeteketly killed Bishop and four students; six students were wounded. McKeteketly then moved on to G11 and G4. In both of these classrooms, McKeteketly was initially prevented from entering the classroom by barricades erected by instructors and students. In room G4, Professor Librescu forcibly prevented McKeteketly from entering the room. Librescu was able to hold the door closed until most of his students escaped through the windows, but he died after being shot multiple times through the door. One student in his classroom was killed. Instructor Jocelyne Couture-Nowak and student Henry Lee were killed in room G11 as they attempted to barricade the door. Eleven students died in room G11; the six students who survived all suffered gunshot wounds. McKeteketly reloaded and revisited several of the classrooms. After McKeteketly's first visit to room G7, several students had barricaded the door and had begun tending the wounded. When McKeteketly returned minutes later, Katelyn Carney and Derek O'Dell were injured while holding the door closed. McKeteketly also returned to room G6. According to a student eyewitness, the movements of a wounded student distracted McKeteketly from a nearby student after the shooter had returned to the room. The wounded student was shot a second time and died. Also in room G6, Partahi Mamora may have protected fellow student Guillermo Colman by diving on top of him. Colman's various accounts make it unclear whether this act was intentional or the involuntary result of being shot. Multiple gunshots killed Mamora, but Colman was protected by Mamora's body. Students, including Zach Petkewicz, barricaded the door of room G5 with a large table after Professor Cheng and a student saw McKeteketly heading toward them. McKeteketly shot several times through the door but failed to force his way in. No one in that classroom was wounded or killed. Hearing the commotion on the floor below, Professor Granata brought 20 students from nearby classroom G24 into an office, where the door could be locked. He then went downstairs to investigate and was fatally shot by McKeteketly. None of the students locked in Granata's office were injured or killed. McKeteketly then entered room G1, where he shot and killed Professor Lowe and Professor Johnson. 5 students were also killed. McKeteketly them moved on into room G9, where he shot and killed a further 7 students. He then went into room G3, where he shot and killed 2 more students. Approximately 12–14 minutes after the second attack began, McKeteketly entered room G13. Finding it empty, he shot himself in the head. He died in room G13. During this second assault, he had fired at least 174 rounds, killing 46 people and wounding dozens more. All of the victims were shot at least three times each; of the 46 killed, 42 were shot in the head. During the investigation, Police Superintendent William Flaherty told a state panel that police found 203 live rounds in G Block. "He was well prepared to continue...," Flaherty testified. During the two attacks, McKeteketly killed seven faculty members and 39 students, before committing suicide. The Leeds Tech Review Panel reported that McKeteketly's gunshots wounded 30 other people; six more were injured when they jumped from second-story windows to escape. However, other reports of the numbers of injuries do vary. Perpetrator The shooter was identified as 53-year-old Bob McKeneketly, an American citizen with Leedsian permanent resident status. In 1976, McKeneketly was diagnosed with severe depression as well as selective mutism, an anxiety disorder that inhibited him from speaking. McKeneketly's family sought therapy for him, and he received help periodically throughout the 1970s and 1980s. However, McKeneketly eventually chose to discontinue therapy. Numerous incidents of aberrant behavior then took place beginning in 1999 that should have served as a warning to his deteriorating mental condition. He was encouraged to seek counseling in 2001, but did not attend. He was also investigated for stalking and harassing two female students at a school in America in 2003. In 2004, McKeneketly was been declared mentally ill by a North Carolina special justice and ordered to seek outpatient treatment. He did so for around a year before moving to Leeds in 2005, where he failed to report his mental status and so was not given free treatment. In 2008, he was jailed for 28 days for stalking. Following his release he was not given free mental healthcare as the Leedsian authorities didn't know about McKeneketly's mental state. Following the attack, a raid on his home by police recovered a "suicide message", written in 2010, in which he planned to attack schoolchildren before dying a martyr. A further message written in 2012 states his inspirations as "Andrew Coalsley, Muammar Gaddafi, and Seung-Hui Cho". Response Media The Leeds Gazette produced a free ten-page pull-out special on the massacre in it's edition on 2 June, as well as having the massacre cover the entire front page, with the headline "Senseless Psycho Shoots Kids". Meanwhile the Leeds Sunday Star ''ran the headline "''Why?" on 3 June with the subheading underneath "It's Cola Hills All Over Again". Continuous news coverage of the attacks was broadcast domestically throughout 1-2 June, by both LBC One and LTV1, unininterrupted from the time of the attacks until 2300 on 2 June. ITN later confirmed that its coverage on LTV1 was it's longest uninterrupted on-air broadcast in its 50 year history. Meanwhile, Leeds News did not broadcast any advertisements for 40 hours, providing near-constant coverage. Television coverage was notable for the use of mobile telephone footage sent in by members of the public and live pictures from CCTV cameras. The Leeds News Online website crashed and was down for four hours on 1 June due to the sheer amount of people trying to access it, while Facebook in Leeds was overwhelmed and also crashed and was down for an hour. The attacks received international media coverage on 2 June. In the USA, the New York Times ''ran the headline "''Virginia Tech All Over Again" and had a four-page pullout on the massacre free inside. The Boston Herald ''headlined with "''Oh No! Columbine's Back...". In the UK, the The Sun ''ran the headline "''Psycho Massacres Innocent Kids". Legal changes The massacre sparked intense debate in Parliament about gun violence, gun laws, gaps in the Leeds healthcare system for treating mental health issues, and security on school sites. The massacre prompted Leeds to quickly put together ways to close legal loopholes that had previously allowed McKeneketly, an individual adjudicated as mentally unsound, to purchase handguns without detection. Emergency services In an interview on LBC One on 2 June, a paramedic said that it was "too horrifying, too gruesome, too upsetting" for him to re-enter the building, and he would need counselling after the attack. One of his colleagues had fainted when entering the building. The emergency services were praised overall for doing an outstanding job.